Board & Card Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who like playing board games, designing board games or modifying the rules of existing board games. It's 100% free, no registration required.

I just saw this card called Steamflogger Boss today, but I've never heard of a Rigger, a Contraption, or an ability called 'assemble' in Magic. Am I missing something? Does this card refer to a very rare card type like locus of which there are only a few examples? It seems like the card would make perfect sense if I could only find something that could assemble a darn contraption...

Steamflogger Boss was printed in the set Future Sight, and the card alludes to the fact that riggers and contraptions may be part of the game in a coming set (the preceding 2 sets in the Time Spiral block were about the past and present). However, seeing as there are still no mention of the assemble mechanic as of 2012, it is still primarily a joke card in the same vein as the Unhinged and Unglued sets. While a 3/3 for 4 mana isn't terrible, it is definitely weak enough that it will only see actual play in limited decks that desperately need to fill up some mid-range creature slots.

Hey in that uh... Lorwyn-Morningtide-Future Sight draft that is all the rage right now he's an awesome value for buffing changelings!
–
AffeSep 11 '12 at 23:29

This answer is completely incorrect! As others have already caught, there are loads of Riggers in Magic. Plus a Steamflogger Boss will also buff other Steamflogger Bosses you have in play, which is marginally better than being a vanilla 3/3.
–
thesunneversetsSep 13 '12 at 12:51

Yes, Contraptions are (at time of writing) a joke, but let's not forget that a Steamflogger Boss does buff other Steamflogger Bosses (without even mentioning the many, many other Riggers that exist in the game of Magic, most of which are admittedly Changelings).

Your first Steamflogger Boss may just be a Hill Giant, but your second is a 4/3 haste, and by the time the third hits the table, you have three hasty 5/3 bad boys on your team. Okay, maybe this scenario isn't exactly the pinnacle of brokenness, but it it goes to show that Steamflogger Boss's (first) ability isn't quite useless. You could do worse for a cost of 3R...

Future Sight was a set full of "what ifs" - glimpses into possible futures for the game, and this was one of them. Some of them were simply gags, and this was one of them. (Although it's worth mentioning that new sets are starting to use terminology in the manner of assemble - detain, for instance)